


Incentive

by Koneko713



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Prompt Fill, Sibling Incest, Sickfic, unabashed fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-14
Updated: 2013-04-14
Packaged: 2017-12-08 10:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/760265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koneko713/pseuds/Koneko713
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kili gets sick, he's always been more docile and easy to deal with than usual.  Fili, however, is the exact opposite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Incentive

**Author's Note:**

> [Sundaycheesecakes](http://sundaycheesecakes.tumblr.com) on tumblr asked for someone to write a fluffy Fili/Kili or Aidean sickfic drabble, and then this happened.

When the boys were children, people were always surprised to hear that Kili was a near-perfect patient.  The younger brother was usually catty and contrary, apparently simply for the satisfaction of keeping his family on their toes.  On the very rare occasions that he fell ill, however, the impetuous little dwarfling became docile as a mouse.  He ate what was brought to him, drank any herbal medicine given to reduce his fever, and never fought the healer. 

Watching her boys, Kili tucked into bed with dark eyes glazed as his brother read to him or told stories, Dis sometimes commented that when he was ill, there was less broken crockery and fewer complaints from irate neighbors to deal with.  She almost wished he would be sick more often, since it certainly made her life easier when he was.

_Almost_ wished that.

Because her boys were so close, if one got sick then the other was guaranteed to fall ill.  And when sweet, gentle Fili was sick, he became an absolute _nightmare._

He snapped at anyone who entered his room, even his brother.  He sulked and gave sharp orders when he wanted something brought to him.  At least when he was snarling at Kili he wasn’t trying to sneak out to practice or to play, despite being so unsteady from fever that he couldn’t walk in a straight line.  As an adolescent he flat refused to take any herbal remedies, despite the fact that they might reduce the time he spent confined to bed.  When he was a child, small enough that Thorin and Dis together could hold him down and _force_ the medicine down his throat, he would wait to be released, stick his fingers in his mouth, and bring the tea or extracts right back up again.  It got to the point that even the slightest sniffle had Thorin scrambling for excuses to stay away from the house for a few days.

Luckily the pair were both healthy, active little things, and got sick much less often than the neighbor’s boy, Ori.  By the time Fili was an adult and they both moved into a place of their own, it had been years since either of them had so much as a cold.

When Kili came panting up the path to her house one day, a few months after they left, Dis sighed.  From the mingled worry and exasperation on his face, she could guess what was going on.  “We’ll go fetch Oin,” she sighed, laying down her gardening tools.

Kili danced nervously ahead of her the entire way to find Oin, then again as they made their way through the mountain halls to the forge.  As they approached the building the sound of a smith’s hammer came clearly to them.  Kili swore and took off at a run, reaching the door ahead of his mother and the healer.  As they came up the path at their own slow pace, the conversation inside could be heard fairly clearly.

“Damn it, Fili, what do you think you’re doing?  I _told_ you to stay in bed!”  That was Kili, shouting and frustrated.

An incomprehensible mumble was the only response.

“I don’t care _what_ needs tempering!  Bed, now!”

There followed a silence, then the noise of a hammer tossed unceremoniously to the side.  The very _sound_ seemed indignant.  By the time Dis and Oin entered Fili was halfway up the stairs, Kili hovering behind, apparently ready to catch him if he fell.

When they reached the top of the stairs and Dis got a good look at her son, she could see why Kili was so concerned.  Fili was flushed and sweating, while at the same time shivering with chills.  He couldn’t seem to force cloudy blue eyes to focus properly, and staggered to the side as though the floor was pitching underneath him.  Kili sighed, guiding his brother to one of the two beds in the room and lowering him gently onto it.

“Hold still for Oin, or else,” he threatened, backing away to glower at his brother with arms crossed.  Fili muttered something under his breath, but was swaying as he sat and couldn’t seem to summon up enough energy to fight.  Oin checked him over, feeling for swollen glands and muttering to himself as he peered into mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.  Finally he pulled away, though he eyed Fili warily as if he expected a blow at any time.

“Just a fever,” he said gently, aiming the remark over his shoulder at Kili.  “He’ll be fine in a few days.  Try to get a tea of yarrow, elderberry, and peppermint down him if you can.”

Kili nodded, ignoring Fili’s surprisingly strong roar of indignation from the bed.  He turned and leveled a glare at his brother, and Fili subsided. 

“I can give you some now,” Oin said, ignoring (or possibly unaware of) the exchange, pulling several packets out of his medical kit and measuring out spoonfuls of each.  “Boil these for several minutes and make sure he drinks it hot.”

Fili opened his mouth to protest, and instead gave a rasping cough.  Kili huffed, heaving his brother up off the bed and pulling the blankets aside.  “Down,” he ordered, waiting for Fili to lie down, propped up against the headboard, before tucking the blankets around him.

Dis watched them with a smile, wondering whether Fili was _that_ ill, or if he simply obeyed his brother better than he ever had her.  She also noted that while there were two beds in the room, the one Fili was currently occupying was the only one that looked like it had ever been slept in.  The boys had shared a bed for years when they were younger and they had lived in small cottages with very little room, and she wasn’t all that surprised that the habit had persisted.

Oin left with final instructions to keep Fili warm, and to keep him out of the forge if at all possible.  Dis waited while Kili bustled around the room, boiling water in their small fireplace and pouring it over Oin’s herbs.  “I’m going to make you drink this whether you like it or not,” he informed Fili, who groaned and stuffed his head under the pillow.

Their mother sighed, watching the pair fondly.  However, as nice as it was to have someone else caring for her absolutely impossible son, she didn’t feel like spending any more time with Fili than necessary right now.  “I can go get you some of those herbs Oin wanted,” she offered.  “You can stay here and look after your brother.”

From the look Kili shot at her she knew that he didn’t really want to deal with Fili either, but he didn’t stop her as she left.  Glancing over her shoulder as she started down the stairs, she glimpsed Fili removing his head from the pillow and looking pleadingly up at his brother.  He didn’t say anything, but Kili lifted an eyebrow and growled at him, communicating in that odd nonverbal way of theirs.  She sighed, turning back to the front before she could trip down the stairs.  Whatever they were passing between them, hopefully it would have Fili on his feet faster than anything she could manage.

***

Kili scowled down at his brother, counting in his head as he waited for the herbs to steep.  “You’re _going_ to drink this, you’re _going_ to get better, and I am _not_ waiting on you hand and foot for more than two days, got it?”

Fili groaned, a rough, miserable sound as he turned his face into the fabric below his head.  “Kili…” he said, low and pleading.  Normally that tone from his brother would have Kili rushing to do whatever Fili wanted, partially because quite frequently that meant Fili would make even more delicious sounds.  Now, though, the brunet crossed his arms and did his best to look stubborn and immoveable.

“What?  And choose your words carefully, brother.  There’s nothing that’s going to change my mind right now.”  Fili didn’t bother to answer him, probably because he realized that Kili wasn’t in the mood to argue right now.  Maybe the pleading eyes would do it…

He turned the most pitiful look he could on his brother, and was rewarded with Kili shoving the steaming mug into his hand.  “Drink, now,” he said curtly. 

Fili curled his lip at the smell of the brew, setting it down on the bedside table with exaggerated care.  He was not so angry that he was going to dash it to the floor.  Not yet, anyway.  Kili simply picked the cup up and placed it back in his grasp.

Fili set it on the bedside table.

Kili glared at him, before his expression turned pensive, gnawing on his lip the way he always did when he was thinking, and Fili thought vaguely that in other circumstances he would find the habit endearing.

Then Fili wasn’t thinking anything, because Kili had just leaned over and kissed him.

It was just the barest brush of lips against his, sliding across each other with the lightest possible pressure before Kili tilted his head and deepened the kiss.  The feeling was odd, Kili’s mouth startlingly cool against his own, and he hadn’t realized how chapped his lips were until they started catching on Kili’s soft skin.  Then Kili worked his mouth open, and he let out a hazy moan as teeth nibbled lightly at his skin and tongue.  Kili moved slow and languid, thoroughly tasting every inch of him.  Fili could taste the sour sickness in his own mouth, and couldn’t imagine this was pleasant, but his half-hearted little sounds of protest were swallowed by his brother’s gentle movements.

At last, when Fili was so dizzy he honestly couldn’t tell which way was up, Kili pulled away.  He nipped lightly at Fili’s mouth once—twice—three times before drawing himself to his feet.  He looked down at his completely disorientated and now thoroughly contented brother…and shoved the mug of herbal tea back into his hand.

“I’m not kissing you again ‘til you’re better,” Kili informed him triumphantly, plopping down on the bed opposite and folding his arms.

“Not fair!  Not fair at all,” Fili muttered, though he took a sip of the tea and grimaced at the taste.  Kili glowered at him.  “C’mon, Kee, that might take weeks!”

“It won’t take so long if you drink that,” Kili pointed out blandly, jerking his chin toward the hated mug.

“It might still be a long time.  You can’t hold out on me like that!” Fili knew he was whining, and hid his grimace in the mug again.  Kili got up, swaggering over to stand over him on the bed, and he was _definitely_ moving like that on purpose.

“Fine.  We can work out rewards for good behavior later.  But now, drink.”

***

When Dis returned it was to find Kili seated on the edge of the bed, looking unbearably smug as he finger-combed his brother’s sweaty hair.  Fili was mumbling something that sounded distinctly unflattering as he burrowed his head under the pillow again.  Most surprising, though, was the empty mug on the bedside table, and there was no evidence that Fili had poured it out or dashed it to the floor.

She quirked an eyebrow at her younger son, who shrugged.

“You just have to give him the right incentive,” was all the explanation he gave.  Even if he had been about to elaborate, he was interrupted when Fili reached out blindly and shoved him off the bed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm publishing this now to prove I'm not dead, and that I have been writing, quite extensively in fact. I've finished the next chapter on Heart and Soul and sent it to my beta, but it may be a while before I get it back so have this to fill the gap. I have three other things I wrote as well that will be published during the wait for the next chapter.


End file.
